Resourcing the Curriculum

In studying ETL503, Resourcing the Curriculum, I was required to prepare a collection policy for a school library. It is recommended that preparing a valid, viable, current collection policy of which all school staff is aware is essential to establishing a quality, usable collection (Department of South Carolina, 2005, p. 1). Preparing a collection policy is an important part of effective collection management (Kennedy, 2006, p. 12), so the skills that were developed in this process are integral to learning in the role of the teacher librarian. Furthermore, the potential of the task to assist in documenting some of the ways in which the library is working toward advancing student achievement was quickly realised (Haycock, 2007, p. 25; Oberg, 2002, p. 10). However, it became apparent throughout the process that some school libraries have vastly outdated collection policies, while others do not have them documented at all (Casey, 2012).

The unique context of a school library is highly influential in determining the resources in the collection (Ryan and Wall, 2010, p. 9). The decisions made in the revised collection policy were underpinned by the nature of the users and opportunities available in the school. These decisions had similarities and differences to the contexts and collection policies of four other school libraries and one community library, which were referred to in revising the collection policy. In order to maintain the integrity of the revised collection policy as it applies to the particular school context selected, it was necessary to refer frequently to the existing collection policy and develop this in terms of updating information, cross checking components and investigating relevant literature to reflect on best practice. Investigating policies on a range of aspects of collection management, including funding, selection, acquisition, weeding and evaluation has been beneficial in terms of linking theory to practice.

The work of Kennedy (2006, p. 11) was regularly consulted to verify that the relevant aspects of the collection policy were addressed. Information acquired through collaboration with teacher librarians and classroom teachers also assisted in preparing the revised collection policy. This resulted in many benefits to the task (Archibald, McGregor and Williamson, 2010, p. 16) and occurred in a range of forms, including meetings, e-mail, phone calls, document sharing and text messages, as in a study of professional collaboration facilitated by Todd (2008, p. 22). To this end, through a range of strategies, the development of the collection policy resulted in an enhanced understanding of the role of the library collection within the school.

References
Archibald, A., McGregor, J., & Williamson, K. (2010). Shared vision: A key to successful collaboration? School Libraries Worldwide, 16(2), 16-30.
        Retrieved from http://web.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.csu.edu.au

Casey, J. (2012). We don’t need a collection management policy [Online forum comment]. Retrieved from http://forums.csu.
        edu.au/perl/forums.pl?forum_id=ETL503_201230_W_D_ Sub12_forum
Department of South Carolina (2005). School library collection development policy guidelines. Retrieved from http://interact.csu.edu.au
        /site/ETL503_201230_W_D/page/ 02ab16d0-fc44-49a7-80ad-61c1694ccb83

Haycock, K. (2007). Collaboration: Critical success factors for student learning. School Libraries Worldwide, 13(1), 25-35. Retrieved from
        http://web.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.csu.edu.au
Kennedy, J. (2006). Collection management- a concise introduction. Wagga Wagga: CIS.
Oberg, D. (2002). Looking for the evidence: Do school libraries improve student achievement? School Libraries in Canada, 22(2), 10-13. Retrieved
        from http://web.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.csu.edu.au   

Ryan, S., & Wall, J. (2010). Resourcing for curriculum innovation. Camberwell: ACER.
Todd, R. J. (2008). The dynamics of classroom teacher and teacher librarian instructional collaborations. Scan, 27(2), 19-28. Retrieved
        from http://web.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.csu.edu.au